Hawaii

Travel planner for family holidays on The Big Island in Hawaii for kids. The Big Island with kids is a good mixture of outdoorsy activities as well as huge family oriented beach resorts. This is a good middle ground if you’d like to see some magnificent natural scenery but still get a large resort experience. Here the adventure stuff is easily accessible for little ones – you can drive straight up to a live volcano and see volcanic rock from right outside the airport. But all the amenities and luxuries of resort life are still available to entertain and keep you relaxed too.

Family holidays in Hawaii with kids. If you’re planning a family vacation in Hawaii, it’s pretty hard to go past the Aulani Disney Resort Hawaii. Conveniently located on Oahu island, there is everything you need to keep young kids (and their parents) entertained. As well as a pristine beach and multiple pools and water play areas, there is live entertainment as well as the all important roaming Disney characters all on the one property. For a trip to Hawaii with kids that doesn’t require you to ever leave the resort, this is the place to be.

Aun Koh is known for his love of eating and travelling which has resulted in his highly successful food blog (wryly titled Chubby Hubby) that documents his culinary adventures. Over the years he has explored the world with his wife, Su-Lyn Tan, sampling the finest cuisines to exotic street foods. But these days travel is a little less glamorous and more sedate thanks to the arrival of his son Toby (3). He tells suitcases&strollers how a dedicated Singaporean foodie has adjusted his travel tastes to holiday with kids.

Kim-Marie Evans lives a pretty envious lifestyle. Not only is she a travel writer who gets paid to holiday, her specialty is luxury travel (hence her fabulous name for her website Luxury Travel Mom). She travels at least 2 weeks a month and has been to 23 countries including Cuba, Haiti and Rwanda. Better yet, she gets to do almost all of it with her four kids Macie (15), JJ (14), Wilson (11) and Keaton (8). She tells suitcases&strollers all about the realities of luxury family holidays. (And yes, you will be jealous.)

If your little girls can’t get enough of the blonde bombshell that is Barbie, perhaps it’s time to embrace their love of hot pink and seek out these fantasy-like experiences. Whether it’s just an afternoon in a mall to dedicating an entire island holiday to Barbie, here are some of the most memorable kids holiday ideas for Barbie fans.

Marathons, triathlons, ironman
competitions – these might not seem like events around which to build a family
holiday. But they can actually make for a different, fun and educational way to
travel with kids says Mike Pizel, dad to Alex (9), Sean (7) and Joshua (4). Mike has competed in multiple competitive races with his wife, Jo, all over
the world and they’ve taken their kids to many of them. He tells suitcases&strollers how to get
ready, set, go! and exercise while travelling by doing fun runs with kids.

If you’re not a committed annual participant, then every October’s Halloween brings up the old debate. Is it commercialised, consumer nonsense or a way to introduce the kids to creativity, community and the history of other cultures? Abigail Denham-McQuillen, mother to Brooke (8) and Jeremy (5), tells suitcases&strollers why she thinks Halloween teaches children a bit about themselves, their neighbourhood and other places in the world – a cheap and cheerful way of accomplishing all the things that traveling with kids is all about.

Noah Davies just might be the most travelled
toddler we’ve met so far. After being born in Port Elizabeth,
South Africa, at the age of 2 he has already been to 29 cities from Miami to Melbourne, Koh Samui
to St Juan. (His father works in the tourism industry.) The longest he has ever
stayed in one destination is 2 months (Germany and Orlando, Florida, USA). His
mother, Yolade, tells us the story of this frequent flier. (And we want to meet
your little frequent fliers too. To win a Gooie
backpack go to the bottom of this story for details. *THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED*)

Amy Burkert and her
husband have spent the last 3 years travelling with their dogs Ty (Shar-Pei) and
Buster (German Shepherd) all over North America. Their experiences have sparked
the very comprehensive pet accommodation database Go Pet Friendly, something like a Trip Advisor for travelling animals that
even allows you to plan your road trips through North America in advance. She
tells suitcases&strollers why travelling with pets is an important part of every family vacation.

No, we’re not just talking fussy eating here. If you or anyone in your family has Crohne’s disease, is celiac or has an allergy to nuts, for example, watching what you eat while on holidays can literally save your life. Kim Koeller, President and CEO of Gluten Free Passport tells suitcases&strollers about how to travel safely with kids with allergies and dietary restrictions.

Imagine arriving at the
airport to find your own personal nanny waiting to help you get the bags
through check-in whose sole purpose is to entertain your child during the
flight. No more missed meals or bursting bladder, but a pleasurable experience
where someone else helps take care of bubs and you actually get to relax on the
plane. (Maybe you'll even get to watch an entire movie!) Want to know more? Read on…

Sometimes learning about other cultures doesn’t
even require you to open the front door. Whether it’s to prep for an upcoming
holiday or just to encourage a desire to see the world, books can be an
excellent inspiration for children and adults. Here are some fun travel-themed
books for kids.

Matt Gross, author of travel memoir The Turk Who Loved Apples, has travelled the globe for his famed columns "The Frugal Traveler" and “Getting Lost” in The New York Times and his blog The Minor Glories. He tells suitcases&strollers about how travel has changed for him since the birth of his kids Sasha (4) and Sandy (8 months) and why these days travelling with kids, he tries not to get lost.

The former Wiggle may have been absent from the live shows for awhile,
but his voice continues to be a critical entertainment tool on any long
distance journey involving children. Now he is back with his own television
show, Play Along With Sam and is on
tour. Sam Moran tells suitcases&strollers
about his travel experiences, how he entertains his 3-year-old daughter on long
trips and what he does when his songs get stuck in his head.

Kitschy and mass market, a cruise might seem
like the type of holiday for people too lazy to plan their own family
vacations. But that’s exactly what makes them so much fun. Yes, the décor is
often tacky. Yes, you may be eating buffet (a lot). Yes, your friends will
laugh. But you and your kids will enjoy yourselves more than you can imagine
and you will come back super relaxed. And isn’t that what a holiday is all
about? Here are 10 reasons why cruises make for some of the best family holidays.